A guide to the Kessler Theater, Oak Cliff's 1941 movie house turned listening room

Once owned by Gene Autry and battered by the 1957 tornado, the Kessler has been one of Dallas's best rooms for live music since it reopened in 2010.

Most Dallas venues are buildings that happen to host music. The Kessler is a building with a story, and you can feel it the moment you walk in off West Davis Street.

The Kessler Theater is at 1230 W. Davis St. in Dallas, at the corner of Davis and Clinton in Oak Cliff's Winnetka Heights neighborhood. It holds about 500 standing, and it has roughly 16 shows on the calendar over the next four weeks.

The history starts with movies. The Kessler was originally built in 1941, according to Wikipedia, as a single-screen neighborhood movie house. Gene Autry owned it for a time in the 1940s, a detail CBS Texas also noted in its coverage of the venue.

Then came the hard years. The building was among the casualties of the 1957 tornado that tore through Dallas and Oak Cliff, a moment Flashback Dallas documented in photos. Afterward it had stretches as other things, including a revival center, and eventually it stood empty for the better part of three decades. The Dallas Observer has called its return one of Dallas music's most unlikely comebacks.

It stood empty for the better part of three decades before its comeback.

That comeback came in March 2010, when the Kessler reopened as a live performance theater. Edwin Cabaniss led the revival, and D Magazine credited artistic director Jeff Liles with helping turn it into an unlikely success. A theater that had been written off became a music and arts venue with a reputation well beyond the neighborhood.

The room is a big part of that reputation. Capacity figures vary with the setup: about 500 standing, by Wikipedia and venue event listings, while Texas Monthly has reported a 350-person seated capacity, and it's that seated configuration that earned the Kessler its listening-room reputation. When the chairs are out, this is a place where audiences come to actually hear a show, and the art deco building gives the evening a sense of occasion that a black-box club can't.

The booking reflects that. A theater of this size and character suits artists who reward close attention, and CBS Texas has reported on the Kessler drawing future Grammy nominees to its stage. It's a room where you might see someone a year or two before they outgrow it.

A couple of practical notes. Check whether a show is seated or standing before you go, since it changes the night considerably. And give yourself time to look around: the Kessler sits in a stretch of North Oak Cliff that has made a habit of making the old new again, and the building rewards a slow walk-up.

Eighty-five years after it opened, and sixteen years after it came back from the dead, the Kessler is still showing Dallas something worth sitting down for.

Sources: Wikipedia: Kessler Theater (en.wikipedia.org); CBS Texas: Oak Cliff's Kessler Theater Draws Future Grammy Nominees (cbsnews.com); Flashback Dallas: Back When the Kessler Couldn't Catch a Break — 1957 (flashbackdallas.com); Dallas Observer: How the Kessler Theater pulled off one of Dallas music's most unlikely comebacks (dallasobserver.com); D Magazine: How Jeff Liles helped make the Kessler Theater an unlikely success (dmagazine.com); Texas Monthly: The 47-Year Niche (texasmonthly.com); The Vendry: The Kessler Theater (thevendry.com); Dallas Voice: Oak Cliff's arts community thrives by making the old new again (dallasvoice.com); NBC DFW: Kessler Theater Bridges Yesterday and Tomorrow (nbcdfw.com)